We have had a number of these messages lately. “My young son/daughter plays on a competitive travel baseball/softball team. During the games if things don’t go his/her way he/she gets emotional and cries, gets upset or angry, pouts, etc. How can we help him/her change their attitude?” (Usually a lot longer than this ) Here are 3 short thoughts plus materials that will help… • They have chosen a “spotlight sport”, it is almost impossible just to disappear in the group – if you are going to be good, you need to learn to deal with it • It may just be a sign that they are not ready for that level of competition yet • You have to identify if the pressure they are feeling is from the outside or self imposed. If it from the outside, find a way to reduce it but it is likely he is a perfectionist. Most perfectionist athletes put more pressure on themselves than anyone else – that is not a bad thing if you can learn how to control it. It is good to care but anger, temper and frustration are emotions out of control and wasted energy. The result of those behaviors is that you discourage your teammates and encourage your opponents (the exact opposite of what an effective competitor wants to do). They need to accept that they will never play a perfect game and learn to channel that energy to quickly recover from mistakes, improve performance and maintain strong body language. This is part of the maturing process. (Playing With Confidence and Compete booklets – for athletes to read and coaches to teach) Our best materials for changing attitudes are DVD, The Power of Your Words and the booklet, Teach Attitude First – proactivecoaching.info
Posted on: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:40:11 +0000
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